The Scent of a Soul
by Piper Redfern
Summary: Eric analyzes one of the reasons he's attracted to Sookie.


Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Southern Vampire Mysteries. I wouldn't mind owning Eric, but that'd only make him more smug than he already is.

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Eric sat at his desk, looking over some paperwork for the club. Or at least, that's what he wanted it to appear as. In reality, he was lost in thought. He closed his eyes and her image was before him, like many times before. She was working tonight, he could tell. No matter how comfortable she appeared and how much she claimed it relaxed her in many ways, Sookie was always a little stressed at the bar. While she was developing her senses and getting control over them, it was still an exertion on her part to keep them in control in such a setting.

Eric let out a slow breath. She confused him; just when he thought he was starting to understand her, understand how she thought, what motivated her, what she feared, what she loved, she'd go and do something that reminded him that he would never be able to figure her out. Men say women are a mystery, that they don't understand them. After all his years of walking the earth, Eric liked to think he understood women for the most part. When he didn't, he usually chalked it up to the female in question as being crazy. Sookie, however, was a different story. She was an enigma that couldn't be solved, no matter how long he spent trying to analyze her. No matter how close he got to her, Eric had the feeling that she was a rare mystery that couldn't be solved.

He often wondered how the human men couldn't see the wonder that lived among them. Then again, Eric thought snidely, neither did Bill until it was too late. Most of the supes that did see her seemed to assume it had something to do with the fairy blood in her heritage. Eric knew better. Once he heard about it, he could pinpoint the fragrance of fairy blood in her scent, but there was something more. Something that, in all his years, he had never encountered before. It was something in the way she moved, the way she could look at people and truly see them, the way she wanted to help others even if they didn't deserve it, the absolute belief in being treated equally…

…and her scent. There was something magical there, no doubt. But it wasn't witch, shifter, were, vampire; nothing he could pinpoint. Eric had traveled all over the world, had encountered more than most beings existing in the world, and he still couldn't find what that scent was. He couldn't come even close to tracking it down. He was always interested in mythology of other cultures, but he found himself pouring over various mythology books, researching and tracking down creatures of lore (real or imagined), even ones most had forgotten. He'd search until he'd find something, anything, of those creatures in an attempt to solve the mystery, and had failed time and time again.

Eric closed his eyes, remembering when he realized he wasn't likely to solve it. It was almost unnerving when he came to that realization, not because he had failed or because he was giving up, not because it didn't matter. It was because he found the scents of all these creatures and not once was able to smell their soul. Sookie, however, had a physical and another scent. They blended together so well that most, not even supes, could notice the different scents. Eric himself, even after bedding her, hadn't noticed at first. In fact, it had taken a long time before he finally noticed.

He seemed to be the only one that did. That unnerved him even more, because Eric didn't know what it meant. Eric gently and slowly reached out for Sookie mentally, wanting to experience her without her notice. It was intoxicating, her scent, and seemed to linger for days after an encounter. It was a slightly sweet taste, smelled of nature, and felt as soft as silk. It was a comfortable temperature with a slight breeze, rays of light pouring down. It was laughter, compassion, protection, and love. He breathed it all in, not caring that it was impossible to smell many of the things he was. For that brief moment, none of that mattered. All that mattered was being that close to Sookie again.

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A/N: Yet another drabble in my attempt to get back into writing fanfic. First one written in this fandom.


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